


Sweeps and Swaps

by Gryphonrhi



Category: Highlander (Movies), Highlander: The Series, White Collar
Genre: Community: crossovers100, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-22
Updated: 2014-07-22
Packaged: 2018-02-09 21:37:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1998753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gryphonrhi/pseuds/Gryphonrhi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mozzie is one of the very best in his line of business and some jobs demand that you hire the best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweeps and Swaps

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Crossovers100 prompt # _85 -- he_ , and because I'm easily amused. Also known as, 'it made sense at the time.'

"You do know that all these ornaments make it easier to hide bugs, MacLeod?" Mozzie looked up from his oscilloscope in time to notice the mineral in front of him changing color as he moved around it. He leaned farther forward, then back again; the mineral went green at first, then shifted back through purple to green again as he finished. So it really was alexandrite. "Huh. That's new."

MacLeod said calmly, "No, it's old. And yes, it's supposed to change color with the angle."

"Yeah, I just didn't expect you to have the biggest chunk of the stuff I've ever seen. You know you're got another fortune on your shelves?" Mozzie checked the scrimshaw and the marble next. "Also? You keep too much loot visible."

MacLeod just chuckled. "Not really. Besides. You like a challenge."

"Not robbing you blind should be the challenge," Mozzie muttered. He swept MacLeod's house for bugs four times a year minimum, more than that on years when MacLeod's assistant looked strained. Every time, the little calculator in the back of his head added up the cost of the rugs, the furniture, the art, the statuary, the silver, the crystal, the wines – hell, the _open floor space_ , in the middle of Manhattan.

Every time, Mozzie looked at the final tally and ignored it again.

He was too smart to rob MacLeod. Honor among thieves, for one thing: Mozzie had been doing this job for ten years, more on than off, and he'd given his word at the beginning, in exchange for MacLeod's silence on their real estate transaction. For the other thing, Mozzie had his opinions on what had _really_ happened in '85. He didn't actually think Connor MacLeod was Russell Nash's son, not least because every blade in the house was razor-sharp, and he didn't just mean the ones in the kitchen knife block.

MacLeod handed him a glass of brandy as he finished the last shelves, too. Mozzie wrapped his hands around the glass and waited for the scents. Vanilla, toffee, rose… and _pepper_? His eyes snapped open. "Armagnac? Hors d'Age Armagnac?"

MacLeod shrugged and grinned. "Why not?" He lifted his own glass, eyebrow and mouth quirked in the by now traditional question. 

Mozzie nodded smugly; nice to know the money he'd put into a bottle was worth it. Neal would love it when he got out of prison.

Mozzie lifted his glass and gave his traditional answer: "Cleaner than our consciences and safer than crossing either of us."

MacLeod grinned back and took a sip. "Good. Come downstairs, then. Rachel found some interesting papers at an estate auction. She thought you'd want to see them." 

Mozzie's mind turned that over swiftly enough that he ended up glaring, with his gear only half-stowed and the champagne flute still mostly full. "Rachel found— _She's_ the one who outbid me?" 

MacLeod shrugged. "She wasn't sure it was you. She was sure you'd want the journals. Come along, I'll give you the old friends discount."

"Old friends discount? What about a family discount?"

"You aren't," MacLeod pointed out, still grinning.

"I protect your house twice a year and you give me Armagnac!"

MacLeod chuckled. "You've already gotten a discount, good point."

They argued it down the stairs, over dinner, and through Mozzie leaving (with the papers). He noticed later that once again, MacLeod hadn't explained why he was worried about surveillance.

Good. What Mozzie didn't know, he couldn't tell anyone.

He knew enough to know how far he didn't want to go.

**Author's Note:**

>  
> 
> _Comments, Commentary, & Miscellanea:_  
> 
> 
> Mozzie is from White Collar and if you haven't seen it, he may be indescribable. He's a professional paranoid, a forger, a gem-cutter, a tech fiend and bug-sweeper, and half a dozen things besides. He's a lot of fun.
> 
> Russell Nash/Connor MacLeod is from Highlander the movie; his antiques shop was under the name Nash, and since then (at least in some of my stories) he's gone back to his first name, MacLeod.
> 
> [Alexandrite](http://goo.gl/oRfnQw) does change colors, yes. Scrimshaw is carved bone or ivory.
> 
> 'What happened in '85.' That would be the events of the movie, Highlander, in which Russell Nash was for a while the lead suspect in a series of beheadings in and around NYC.
> 
> As for the real estate transaction? The best way to have a hideout that can't be traced to you is to have it in someone else's name. Mozzie has a lifetime lease on some of Connor's property.
> 
> Armagnac is cognac from Gascony; Hors d'Age means it's ten years aged or more. And yes, some of them do have that initial mix of scents, and it can keep changing as it keeps warming.
> 
> Rachel Ellenstein is Connor's partner in the store and his foster daughter; why she hasn't retired, I don't know. Canonically, Mozzie prefers to wear disguises when he has to go out in public.
> 
> Last, the journals belonged to Earl Warren's secretary. Mozzie's a conspiracy buff; who could resist the behind-the-scenes notes from the investigation into President Kennedy's assassination?


End file.
